Just a beginning note that I often add the flags above to remind us of the suffering and bravery of Ukraine under Putin’s invasion, and of those Russians who oppose and deplore Putin’s senseless and evil war with Ukraine and all the unnecessary sorrow and loss of many, many lives on both sides.
Now to today’s icon.
This icon appears to be one of the more skillful creations attributed to the Vetka school of icon painting.
It depicts
ИПАТИЙ ЧУДОТВОРЕЦ ИЖЕ В ГАНГРЕ
IPATIY CHUDOTVORETS IZHE V GANGRE
HYPATIUS THE WONDERWORKER THE ONE AT GANGRA
So this icon represents Hypatios/Hypatius of Gangra.
You will notice that anachronistically, Ipatiy holds in his right hand a icon of the “Kazan” type, which first became famous in 1579. Ipatiy, however, by tradition was a participant in the Nicene Council in 325 — centuries earlier. His story says that after that council, he was attacked by some supporters of Arianism, and a woman among them killed him with a stone — then supposedly went mad until she was healed by visiting the burial site of Hypatius.
His scroll illustrates the intolerance of religions based on dogma. As Mark Twain once wrote, “Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion–several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight.”
It reads:
АЩЕ КТО НЕ ПОКЛОНЯЕСЯ ИКОНЕ ПРЕЧИСТЫЯ БОГОРОДИЦЫ С ПРЕВЕЧНЫМ МЛАДЕНЦЕМ ИСУСОМ ХРИСТОМ ДА ВУДЕТЪ ПРОКЛАТЪ
ASHCHE KTO NE POKLONYAESYA IKONE PRECHISTUIYA BOGORODITSUI S PREVECHNUIM MLADENTSEM ISUSOM KHRISTOM DA BUDET” PROKLAT”
“Whoever does not bow before the icon of the most holy Mother of God with the Eternal Child, let him be cursed.”
Well, that’s not very nice or tolerant, is it? Orthodoxy does have its dark side, something that can happen in most any religion that adopts the “true believer” status for itself, dividing the world into “us” and “them” — something that has caused endless suffering over the centuries, and continues to do so even today.
In any case, the scroll text seems to be the result of the confusion in tradition of Hypatius of Gangra, who is said to have attended the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea, with a later bishop Hypatius who is said to have attended the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787, which dealt with the veneration of icons. At that later council, Hypatius supposedly made the statement written on the scroll in the icon, saying those who refused to venerate them were cursed/damned/anathema.
What I find most interesting about Ipatiy however, is his relationship to the domovoy in folk belief.
The domovoy (домовой) in Russian belief is a spirit creature who is the guardian spirit of the house. He watches over it, keeps out evil spirits, helps out diligent human dwellers and tends to punish those who are lazy. He usually looks like a rather hairy old man, but some say the older a domovoy gets, the younger he looks.
The commoration day of Ipatiy/Hypatius of Gangra is March 31st by the Old Calendar, April 13th by the New. So the day called “Ipatiy” has a number of folk traditions associated with it, one of which is this: On that day, the domovoy tends to be particularly rambunctious, and Ipatiy is believed to have the power to keep the domovoy under control. He is also appealed to in cases of sexual impotence, infertility, problems with pregnancy, as well as the expulsion of evil spirits.
Here is another somewhat similar icon of Ipatiy/Hypatius. It is obviously a State Church icon, as we can tell from the ICXC position of the fingers on the right blessing hand. Note too that a different icon of Mary and the child Jesus is used in this example. That is because the podlinniki — the painters’ manuals — usually did not specify the actual icon type to be used here, but generally said only something like the icon should be of “the Most Holy Mother of God and the Eternal Child Jesus Christ.”
The title inscription on this icon of Ipatiy reads:
OBRAZ IPATIYA EPISKOPA GANGRSKAGO
“IMAGE OF HYPATIUS BISHOP OF GANGRA”
ICONS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION 